Nanoparticles Based on Polydopamine and Honokiol for Combination Therapy of Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors, and its incidence is increasing year by year. In recent years, the active ingredients of Chinese medicine have made great progress in the treatment of CRC due to their advantages of high efficiency and low toxicity. However, more than 90% of the active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine have defects of poor water solubility and low bioavailability, which greatly limits their efficacy and clinical application. The development of efficient drug delivery systems provides an opportunity to improve the efficacy of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine. Here, for the first time, we successfully proposed a simple method to prepare the combined nanoplatform SA@PDA-FA NPs by wrapping polydopamine (PDA) onto self-assembled nanoparticles (SA) of honokiol (preclinical anticancer drug HK) and further modifying SA@PDA NPs with folic acid (FA). This not only circumvents the extreme hydrophobicity of HK but also shows significant tumor targeting ability. On the one hand, PDA generates significant cytotoxic heat when stimulated by near-infrared light, making it suitable for photothermal therapy. On the other hand, SA can be targeted to be taken up by cancer cells under the mediation of FA for efficient tumor ablation for chemotherapy.The combination nanoplatform demonstrates efficient near-infrared (NIR) light heat transfer and also possesses capabilities for chemotherapeutic drug delivery. Results from both in vitro and in vivo studies showed significant tumor growth inhibition, likely due to the advantages of nanomedicine and combination therapy, without significant adverse effects. The rationale for this simple green strategy of carrier-free nanomedicine formulation by the self-assembly method may provide more choices for the development of oncology combination therapies.